I don’t have anything against sugar, but I love the earthy sweetness honey imparts — not only in hot drinks, smoothies, and baked goods but on a whole variety of dishes you may not have considered before. So, when confronting a recipe that calls for a sweetener, I often ask myself, “Why not honey instead?”

Substituting honey for sugar is fairly simple, but there are a few general rules you should know.

• Up to one cup, honey can be substituted for sugar in equal amounts. For example, you can substitute 1/2 cup of honey for 1/2 cup of sugar called for in a recipe. Over one cup, use about 2/3-3/4 cup of honey for every cup of sugar. This is because honey is actually sweeter than sugar.
• Honey is a liquid, so you’ll need to reduce the liquid in the recipe a little. Do this at a rate of 1/4 cup less liquid for every cup of honey used in the recipe.
• Honey is also a little acidic. To counteract this, add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda for every cup of honey used.
• Honey causes baked goods to brown more quickly, so reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees F and watch carefully as the time gets close.

Here are a few places where you may find Buzz Savories artisanal honey to be an ideal addition or replacement in your recipes.

Pair it with goat cheese. If you haven’t tried this flavor combination you’re missing out. Use honey in a salad with goat cheese crumbles, or drizzle it straight onto a slice of cheese on a charcuterie board.

Glaze some pretzels. Coat some plain pretzels with honey and leave them in the refrigerator overnight to set. Adding a bit of salt at the end gives them a delightful sweet/salty flavor.

Coat your roast. Glazed meat is an ages-old tradition. Try experimenting with honey to create a glaze that will take this cooking technique to the next level. Honey and lime make a super fresh glaze, whereas pairing it with soy sauce gives almost any meat an Asian twist.

Bake it into a loaf. Honey can be substituted 1:1 in a wide variety of baked goods from muffins to cakes to breads. A little bit of experimentation might lead you to some delightful new discoveries.

Drizzle some on fruits and berries. A little honey instead of sugar on a bowl of raspberries or strawberries — especially with a little cream — creates a whole new complexity of flavor.

Faith to move mountains notwithstanding, what do mustard seeds say? Today, mustard seeds speak to me in urgent voices, saying, “Whatever is worth doing, is worth doing well.” I heard this home-spun philosophy frequently as a child, and today, when my mind turns to project #2 as I’m still in the completion phase of project #1, I’m reminded of my tendency to sometimes slide into the final innings of a project and the “worth doing well” part escapes me.

Since 2018, my business, Buzz Savories, blends, processes, packs and markets Spicy Beer Mustard and Buzz Savories Honey Mustard.  Here’s what I’ve learned. Every incremental step of every task related to making mustard matters and requires 100% attention on my part. The FDA cares about safety; customers care about the flavor of the mustard and quality of the packaging; the mustard complains when I disregard the specific requirements of blending, packing and processing a quality product.

Packing mustard demands focus and the important last task – sealing the jars can trip me up unless I manage the details perfectly.

My check list:

• Weigh every jar
• Wipe the top of every jar
• Twist and tighten every lid on every jar
• Place jars equidistant from one another in a large stainless-steel boiler with at least two inches of boiling water above every jar – Do Not Crowd the Jars!
• Add two cups of white vinegar into the boiling water to eliminate mineral scum on the jars
• Simmer for 25 minutes to seal the jars
• Remove from the boiling water bath and cool the jars – Do Not Crowd the Jars as they cool!
• Clean every jar with a white vinegar solution
• Check that every jar is sealed and clean
• Label
• Pack into the original boxes – 12/box

Mustard has “a way of entertaining the senses” — and reminding the mustard maker that a task worth doing is worth doing well.

We recently read an interview with actor Stanley Tucci that got us thinking. Tucci was talking about the similarities between creative pursuits like acting, directing…and cooking.

“When you’re cooking, you have to have a basic understanding of how to use a knife, what ingredients go together, how to turn the stove on. You need a certain amount of

technique, but you also need imagination. And that’s exactly the same thing for painting, for acting, for directing. You have to have an understanding of the what the rules are and then make everything else up in between.”

We also heard a podcast recently noting that while the popularity of cooking shows on cable TV is at an all-time high, the number of people actually cooking continues to drop. The analogy they made was to sewing; in years past, mothers routinely taught (at least) their daughters to sew. Today it’s a rarely practiced “hobby.”

We think that’s sad. Nowadays, take-out is easy, and, in the post-Covid period, delivery is ubiquitous. To be fair, frozen meals have come a long way from Swanson TV Dinners, but it misses the point that there is more to food than the eating of it. If you think about preparing a meal like you might think about drawing a picture or writing a poem — or (like Tucci) acting a scene with Meryl Streep — you can appreciate the nuance that goes into it. When you’re on the right side of your brain, you can appreciate the smell and texture and color of the food you’re cooking — and appreciate it in a completely different way when you’re serving and eating it.

If you have not already, we hope you’ll take a moment to visit our Recipes page to see what inspiration you might find. Cooking is one of our great pleasures and we hope you’ll join us on the journey.

Photographer Don Brockmeier was gracious to share some of his Nebraksa fall folliage photos with us this month. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

George T. French introduced the classic French’s yellow mustard in 1904 believing Americans would prefer a milder mustard than the darker and spicier ones available to them at the time. It caught on in a big way and soon became the dominant brand in the U.S. — so big that it is generally known as “American mustard” in the rest of the world.

Speaking for myself, I didn’t much care for any mustard as a kid and for many years, even if I did add mustard to a hotdog, anything beyond French’s was a mustard too far. When my tastebuds finally matured, adding spice to my life became a life-changing culinary concept.

As the name implies, honey mustard is a blend of mustard and honey, which typically results in a mustard that’s full of warm spices rounded with sweetness. It’s great in a lot of different contexts, but it really pops when cooking with it. Because of its sugar content, it caramelizes beautifully, and deepens the flavor of whatever it touches.

Along our culinary journey, we’ve discovered easy ways of using mustard to add just a bit of extra spice to our lives. Here are five of our favorites.

Add it to a cheese and charcuterie board. The sweet bite of honey mustard goes so well with cheese — especially classic cheddar and creamy, buttery cheeses like Brie and Camembert, and spicy beer mustard is the perfect accompaniment to your Genoa salami, Italian dry salami, peppered salami, prosciutto or whatever you have.

Spice up chicken, pork or salmon. Do the work of a whole recipe of spices by simply brushing your chicken pork or salmon with honey mustard before and during baking or grilling. That’s the easy way. If you want to look into more complex recipes, check out our web page.

Toss with roasted vegetables. We’re roasting a lot more vegetables these days and we’ve found if we add a dollop of Honey Mustard or Spicy Beer Mustard when we toss it in the olive oil, salt and pepper it lends a pleasing depth of flavor without a bunch of other spices.

Make a fresh vinaigrette. Anybody can pour dressing out of a bottle, but for a fresh, made-from-scratch alternative try a honey mustard vinaigrette. There are a lot of recipes online, but the basics are easy: combine honey mustard with Greek yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice and/or apple cider vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. As with a lot of recipes, specific ingredients and amounts vary a little bit, but experimentation is half the fun.

Take it for a dip. One of our favorite sauces for dipping anything from steamed broccoli to chicken tenders is equal amounts of a Buzz Savories Honey Mustard and mayo or plain Greek yogurt. Easy and yummy.

Once you get the habit, you’ll find lots of other ways to add a delicious depth of flavor with Buzz Savories Honey Mustard, Spicy Beer Mustard and artisanal Honey.

Beekeepers are a curious collection of individuals. For one thing, be assured that they cut across every age, gender, national, social, political and ethnic group. What they share is a keen interest in this fascinating species and a willingness to learn and perfect specialized skills to help bees continue to thrive in a changing world.

With India having the largest number of beekeepers and beehives, totaling around 12.25 million, followed by China with about nine million, beekeepers are found in virtually every country in the world (although not so many in Antarctica).

According to the USDA, there are some 212,000 beekeepers in the U.S., with most of them hobbyists with just 3-5 hives, although the honey industry supports many large, even multi-national corporations. The USDA estimates some 10,000 people in the U.S. pursue beekeeping as a “sideline” occupation, using honey production or pollination services as an income source.

Bees are vital to the ecology because they are such efficient pollinators, with each bee visiting up to 2000 plants in a single day. Without such pollinators the world could suffer the loss of as much as a third of our supply of fruits, vegetables and nuts. As such, bees are valuable not only because they produce honey (which we might almost think of as a side benefit) but because when they are managed and used to pollinate over 100 crops grown in North America, they contribute $15 billion to the US economy every year. Many crops, such as almonds, which contribute $4.8 billion to the US industry each year, rely on honeybees for more than 90% of their pollination.

If you’re interested in helping bees, there are ways you can help that go beyond buying Buzz Savories artisanal honey and beeswax candles.

Mental Floss is an always-fascinating source of interesting stories and little-known facts on myriad subjects. Since mustard is a thing we’re interested in, we decided to see if Mental Floss had anything thought-provoking to say on the subject. And boy, did they.

Some of these tidbits we already knew and probably the same is true for you, but we bet you’ll still find a thing or two in this list to regale your friends and colleagues with the next time “favorite condiments” comes up as a topic.

Mustard and broccoli are kissing cousins. As a member of genus brassica, mustard is related not only to broccoli, but to a variety of vegetables including cauliflower, turnips, Brussels sprouts and cabbage.

Mustard is thought to be the first condiment humans ever put on their food. Egyptian pharaohs stocked their tombs with mustard seeds to accompany them into the afterlife, but the Romans were the first to grind the spicy seeds into a spreadable paste and mix them with a flavorful liquid—usually, wine or vinegar.

Mustard is a cure for what ails you. Pythagoras endorsed a poultice of mustard seeds as a cure for scorpion stings and ancient Roman physicians used it to ease toothaches. Over the years, mustard has been used for appetite stimulation, sinus clearing, and frostbite prevention. It’s now touted as a weight loss supplement, asthma suppressant, hair growth stimulant, immunity booster, cholesterol regulator, dermatitis treatment, and even as an effective method of warding off gastrointestinal cancer.  Ask your doctor if mustard is right for you.

King Louis XI didn’t travel without mustard. The French monarch considered the condiment so essential to his culinary experiences that he always kept a pot with him, so as not to be disappointed if he were to be served a meal in a household that wasn’t fully stocked.

Mustard is number two, so it tries harder. Peppercorns are the most used spice in the United States; mustard comes in second. At Buzz Savories, we’re trying to change that one jar at a time.

Two countries account for most of the world’s mustard. Together, Canada and Nepal’s crops account for more than half of global mustard production. Bet you didn’t know that one!

Let us leave you with this important reminder from Mental Floss: mustard is a plant; prepared mustard is a condiment. For fine, artisanal, hand-packed prepared Honey Mustard and Spicy Beer Mustard, visit us today at buzzsavoriesllc.com

Mustard is certainly one of mankind’s most ancient condiments. Mustard seeds have been found in Stone Age settlements, although food historians believe mustard was first cultivated in India around 3,000 B.C.E. Egyptians tossed the seeds onto their food, but it was the Sumerians who came up with the idea of grinding it into a paste and mixing it with verjus, the juice of unripe grapes. This technique was later perfected by Monks in the Dijon region of France, and, in fact, the monk’s word for mustard was mustum ardens — “must ard” — meaning “burning wine.”

By the 9th century, French monasteries were generating considerable income from prepared mustard sales, and by the 13th century, Parisian merchants included mustard among their daily sauces for sale. Pope John XXII of Avignon (1249-1334) loved mustard so much that he created the post of “Grand Moutardier du Pape” — Grand Mustard-Maker to the Pope.

The modern era of mustard may be said to have started in 1777 when two men, Maurice Grey and Antoine Poupon, used Grey’s recipe and Poupon’s money to start producing a high-quality prepared mustard. (If you’ve ever idly wondered what a poupon was or why it was grey, now you know.) Benjamin Franklin is said to have brought mustard back from England, introducing or at least boosting the condiment in the new world.

Although there are about 40 species of mustard plants, the ones used to make modern commercial mustard products are those producing black, brown and yellow mustard seed. Yellow mustard, which originated in the Mediterranean basin, is associated with bright yellow hot dog mustard; brown mustard, which originated in the Himalayas, is the basic Chinese restaurant mustard served in America and the basis for most American and European mustards. Black mustard is popular in the Middle East and Asia Minor, where it originated, but isn’t used much in the West.

Buzz Savories mustards are created in a manner very much like their ancient ancestors. They are blended of seven natural ingredients: yellow mustard seeds, brown mustards seeds, mustard powder, Olde Creamery Stout, cider vinegar, turmeric, allspice, salt, and honey. These ingredients when blended and packed and heated to 180 degrees F. taste slightly sweet (our Honey Mustard twice as sweet as our Spicy Beer Mustard), 100% savory and rich with layers of flavor.

The next time you spread Buzz Savories Spicy Beer Mustard on your ham sandwich and take a bite, savor it, and think to yourself, “You know, there’s a real history here.”